236th Army Birthday

Today, June 14th, 2011, is the Army's 236th birthday. It's also the commemoration of 234 years of Old Glory. Happy birthday, Army!  And happy Flag Day, America!

The Army's present to me: ditching the black beret in favor of the patrol cap. I am so glad to be out from under that black wool sweater on a hot and humid DC summer day!

Soon, Army Staff Officers will be switching to the Army Service Uniform (ASU) from the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) as the uniform of the day in the Pentagon.

I suppose it's about time for these changes.

The black beret was created in 2001 as a symbol of the Army's planned transformation to a leaner, meaner, high-tech, and inherently joint and coalition fighting force. But the events of 9/11 caused the transformation to happen on the fly, rather than in stages, so the transformation was more of an evolution. After 9/11 we also started wearing our combat uniform in the Pentagon in lieu of the old Class B (green polyester) office attire. Wearing a combat uniform (first BDUs, then DBDUs, then ACUs) was a way of expressing solidarity with the troops in Afghanistan in 2001, and then in Iraq in 2003. The ACUs I wear to work in the Pentagon are some of the same ones I wore in Baghdad.

Now, 10 years later, we're ditching the beret and switching to office attire. I went to clothing sales and bought my short sleeve white ASU shirt and the blue pants with gold stripes.

Time for a change.

Here's a 30-second clip of Your Army: DVIDS - Video - 236th Army Birthday